Mudie Holcroft
Mudie Holcroft is a Eurasian Federation ace pilot and a veteran of the First Junius War. She is currently a member of the Eurasian Federation military's 501st Autonomous Corps, a special operations unit under the direct command of Vice-President Marshall code-named "Blackbird Squadron". She initially pilots a GAT-01A2 Dagger, then switches to a GAT-04 Windam. Personality Mudie's personality is cynical and jaded as a result of experiences from her youth, and so she is generally quite callous, except around people who are close to her, such as her teammates Sven or Shams, or else her old mentor . Mudie is highly aggressive in combat, and prefers to engage her targets at very close range, which is her specialty. She is utterly without mercy, especially - at least initially - against Coordinators. She initially shows an open and intense dislike of Coordinators, which is exacerbated when rogue ZAFT forces kill Shams in Bandar-e-Abbas. She is often heard saying that "the only good Coordinator is a dead one", though she begins to have doubts as to this late in the war. History Born in the Eurasian Federation to a middle-class family, Mudie grew up in a household that had a generally negative view of Coordinators, as her father, while not himself a member of Blue Cosmos, did ascribe to certain of their beliefs, especially as regarded the Coordinators, whom he viewed as untrustworthy and potentially dangerous. When the PLANTs ceased resource exports to Earth in CE 70, the economies of the Alliance nations crashed, and life became extremely difficult for the vast majority of the civilian populace. This situation was exacerbated exponentially when, as war began between the Alliance and the PLANTs, ZAFT launched Operation Uroboros, ''the worldwide dropping of the Neutron Jammers, which rendered every nuclear powerplant on Earth inoperable, triggering a global energy crisis of cataclysmic proportions. In the following months, Mudie's mother and a number of her friends died, which cemented her already growing resentment into an outright hatred of all Coordinators. Her father, through a number of professional and political connections, became involved with Blue Cosmos, while Mudie herself joined the military. Her first assignment was in North Africa, where she was assigned after the First Battle of Victoria. There, she met tank commander Lukas O'Donnell, who took her under his wing, and whose frequent statement that "The only good Coordinator is a dead one" became a sort of mantra for Mudie herself as well. Mudie's first major engagement would be the disastrous Second Battle of Victoria, which would end in defeat for the Alliance, though she, Lukas, and a small number of others would succeed in fleeing back across friendly lines. Travelling from there to Panama, she as well as Lukas are tapped for the Thirteenth Autonomous Corps, the Alliance's very first corps of mobile suits, the GAT-01 Strike Dagger. Mudie would master the new machine with little effort, and perform exceedingly well in the first stages of the battle, though she would be forced to abandon her incapacitated Dagger after the detonation of ZAFT's Gungnir EMP weapon, and only narrowly avoided being massacred by the ZAFT forces, which increased still more her own hatred of the Coordinators. Mudie would have her revenge in the Third Battle of Victoria, in which she participated now piloting a GAT-01D1 Duel Dagger, whose heavy armor and weapons she used to great effect, decimating whatever ZAFT machines came within her reach. Shortly prior to the battle, she would meet Sven Cal Bayan for the first time, and the two of them, along with Lukas, would prove to be among the most effective and deadliest of the Alliance's forces in that battle. After Victoria, Lukas would head to space, while Sven and Mudie would be assigned to a unit that would participate in ''Operation: 8.8, ''the capture of Carpentaria, which succeeds. The war ends before either pilot is sent into space, and so neither one participates in either the Battle of Boaz or the Second Battle of Jachin Due. After the war, Mudie, Sven, and a small number of others are selected to form the Eurasian Federation's élite Special Operations "Blackbird Squadron", officially the 501st Autonomous Mobile Corps, and assigned to the new land battleship ''Compton. In C.E. 75, the 501st is deployed to the naval base/refugee camp at Bandar-e-Abbas in the immediate aftermath of the Break the World Incident, in which the remains of Junius Seven fell from orbit onto Earth. Rogue ZAFT forces attack a refugee camp operated by the Alliance, and although the 501st succeeds in eliminating the attacking force, Shams Couza, Mudie's teammate and like her a veteran of Victoria, is killed. Subsequently, Sven and Mudie are assigned to the carrier Jeanne D'Arc, ''which engages against ZAFT's new battleship ''Minerva, ''then later to the ''John Paul Jones ''after the ''Jeanne ''is ordered to return to its home port. Mudie would be in the Eurasian Federation forces that participate in the Battle of Hamburg, which ended the rampage of the Atlantic Federation's giant mobile armor GFAS-X1 Destroy. During that battle, the 501st would engage and destroy Lukas O'Donnell's TSX-MA24F Chaos. Around this time, Mudie begins having second thoughts about her own prejudice towards Coordinators, largely as a result of the events in Germany. Still onboard the ''Jones, ''Sven and Mudie would lead the vanguard of the Alliance forces in the attack on Heaven's Base, and soon afterwards are sent up to space and assigned to the [[Niranjan-class|Niranjan-class stealth assault carrier ''Alakhshya]]. Mudie is assigned a new mobile suit, the GAT-X1022 Blu Duel Gundam, which she would continue to use through the end of the war, participating in the Second Battle of Daedalus.